


necklace of hope, orange

by Lilian



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bisexual Tony Stark, Canon Compliant, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Coming Out, Cussing, Deaf Clint Barton, Everybody Lives, Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers, Fix-It, Multi, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 13:24:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18624145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilian/pseuds/Lilian
Summary: Natasha and Clint think outside of the box.(or: I fixed it and now I can finally sleep.)





	necklace of hope, orange

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME. 
> 
> I had so many thoughts about this movie, but I think I have addressed them all in this fic. No more sexism please, no more exclusive heterosexuality and you can try to PRY Steve leading an LGBTQ+ support group out of my cold dead hands. All the characters and all the ships live in this one and they all know that sharing is caring.

“Too bad!” Natasha snarls, teeth bared. They are standing about four steps away from the edge. “I am not letting you do this! Think of your children!”

“Oh, so just because you don’t have any suddenly your life is worth less than mine?” Clint scoffs, adjusting his hearing aid. It’s his most telling nervous tick, one Nat hasn’t quite seen since… well before Budapest, certainly. But it does give her an idea.

“WAIT- MAYBE-OTHER-SOLUTION,” she signs, trying to cover the movements with her body from the red and nose-less guy.

“WHAT?!” Clint signs back, but his eyes flicker quickly up to the being behind her. They always did understand each other without trouble, without the aid of any language, if it was necessary. “U-G-L-Y RED?”

She raises her eyebrow and Clint shrugs as if saying “can’t hurt to try”.

Twenty seconds of manoeuvring later they throw the Red Skull over the edge, but nothing happens.

“It was a long shot anyway,” Natasha shrugs.

“I don’t have a physical body, you fools,” The figure says re-materializing behind them.

“There must be a way to cheat the system,” Natasha muses aloud. “We just have to think creatively.”

“No, there is only--”

“What do you have in mind?” Clint talks over the annoyed figure, coming closer to her. A glance later he shakes his head, muttering. “That’s too big of a risk. If we both die--”

“Well either that or we climb down.”

So they climb and climb and climb, but the ground doesn’t seem to be any closer than before.

“I think we should call it,” Clint says. “This was useless. It’s never gonna end.”

“Time for plan A?” Natasha nods, and they take each other’s arm in a strong hold. “On three. One, two, three.”

And then there is a whoosh of air, pain, and darkness.

 

When Natasha comes to and emerges from the water, she has the soul stone in her hand. But what’s more important, Clint is by his side, alive and awake, staring at his own palm.

 

*

“Nerds. Overachievers. See that? The wonder twins are at it again,” Tony says when Nat and Clint show him the two identical soul fragments. Steve, who is standing by his side (as he always seems to be since he collapsed at his feet, it’s both touching and really, really irritating) smiles however, and lays a warm hand over his arm. “Good job,” Steve adds. “It might come in handy.” 

There is a brief scientific debate over whether they should try to fuse them together, but Thor says no in a strange and dreamy voice, so unlike the panicky or the dismissive tones he’s used so far that nobody has quite the state of mind to argue with him. It doesn’t help that it’s after three am and they are exhausted as hell.

They have a quick and quiet discussion of who will keep the god company that night, and Bruce volunteers almost immediately.

The others depart steadily, but Steve takes the elevator up with him. Tony doesn’t think it’s useful pointing out that neither of their rooms are in the direction they’re going. Steve is weird, has been weird, behaves strangely, and the tension between them is ever-present but feels different in a way Tony doesn’t understand. He cannot point out _why_ or _how_ it’s different, but it is, ever since the agreement, and it’s making Tony jumpy and really uneasy. He is frustrated as hell by the things he can’t solve and Steve, as it seems, the ceasefire between them notwithstanding, is a fucking mystery.

“I saw Peggy,” Steve says after Tony sat him down in his workshop and pressed a glass of whiskey into his hand. “I saw her and I felt… like a liar.”

Tony hums, almost too tired to form words. He is putting things into a toolbox (or taking them out? Who can tell?), while not so subtly trying to watch Cap.

“Like here I am, and week after week I preach to my gay group that all we can do is move forward, honor the memories of those who--”

“Naaah,” Tony says, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. “No, wait, no, technical break. My ears are malfunctioning. Did you say you have a gay group?” He makes sure to open his eyes extra wide too, but Steve just looks at him with that slight disappointment on his face, the one that means “you haven’t paid attention throughout our briefing”, but very much not the one that says “you are saying something stupid and kinda insensitive, do you have any idea how the world works, you dumb billionaire?”.

“Yeah,” Steve answers, a tiny frown on his face like their whole conversation is about basic math instead of the most mind-blowing thing Tony has ever heard him say. “The LGBT center on Lincoln’s street? Where I go every Tuesday? Haven’t I told you about it like… at least eight times?”

Tony sits heavily, pulling the thing he’s holding (oh, a wrench, nice) closer to his chest. He’s really lucky there’s been a chair there.

“Y--?” He waves his hand around (and incidentally, the wrench with it) because he cannot find the words. Steve looks back at him, cheek slightly pink, but barely blinking, and there is something in his eyes Tony needs… to ignore, for now.

He stands up as suddenly as he sat down, turning his back to Captain Fucking America who just used gay in a sentence, and that does so not mean Tony should just assume things about his sexuality, like didn’t Howard say he was so blindingly into Aunt Peggy they all collectively thought they’re gonna spontaneously combust and--

“I am sorry, Tony,” Steve mutters and he sounds… weird. Like he’s-- nervous? Tony has to turn to see him and check, but then again the wrench needs to go to its place and anyhow if Tony would try to put it down onto the table now it would be too loud and it’d drown out whatever Steve’s trying to say.

“God, I did this more than ten times already and it’s still not easy. But I didn’t… exactly… come out to you yet, and you of all people should know...”

There is a sound of a heavy swallow, and Tony can’t help but turn back to look at him. Not just because he needs to see this. No, he needs to do this for Steve, too, just like Rhodey and Pepper did it for him more than twenty years ago on a small and smelly sofa. Steve needs to see that whatever he’s about to say is fine, he needs to see the lack of a twist or descending darkness on Tony’s face. Everyone who is different deserves that – they deserve a smile and a reassurance, even if Tony currently feels like puking from how much his stomach is in knots.

Steve is staring at the empty glass in his hands.

“I’m bi.”

“Uh, um, good.” Tony hurries to assure him, but his mouth is so dry he thinks he’s in the desert again. “That’s really cool, Cap, brave and okay and whatnot. All good! Wonderful.”

There is a tiny smile on Steve's face, and finally, finally, he looks up. They make eye contact, and it’s peaceful and serene and torrid and painful all at once. Steve stands, clasps his hands behind his back.

“Right,” he says, taking a step in the direction of the door. “That’s… thanks. I should go, I think. Enough for the night. Thanks for the... drink, Tony.”

Tony watches as he goes, having no idea how to keep him there.

“Wait. You said-- you felt like a liar?”

Steve turns back, face drenched in sadness.

“I had to hide in a room, and it was… and I saw Peggy.” He swallows hard, and Tony can’t help but follow his Adam's apple with his gaze. “And I wanted to stay so much it hurt.” Tony sees how hard it is to breathe for him, to force these words out into the open. Steve continues, quieter, but with a strange intonation. “But then I remembered Bucky… and Sam. And you.”

He only glances his way for a second, but his gaze and his words hit Tony at the same time. _Peggy. Bucky. Sam. You._

Steve steps out of the workshop without another word, and after Tony sees the door of the elevator slide shut behind him, he finally lets his shaky hand let go of the wrench. He doesn’t even hear the sound of it hitting the floor.

 

*

Thor lands next to him in a heap and takes away the gauntlet with a growl.

“No, I--” Tony starts to object, trying to find Strange with his eyes, trying to find a reasonable explanation why it has to be him, but Thor is not listening.

“Give me the Stone!” He roars.

“What are you talking about?” Tony shots back, panting and feeling just a little out of touch with the world. “They are all there!” He shoots a beam out of his hand in time to hinder Thanos’s step, but even with the six other Avengers attacking him, he’s way too close.

“The Soul Stone. The other fragment!” Thor demands.

Really fucking lucky that it’s Tony who has it in his armor, isn’t it?

He hands the stone over, dumbfounded when Thor all but tears it out of his hands, growls at it “Bring my brother back!” and then… knocks it back and swallows it, like someone would with a painkiller.

Tony has no time to react besides feeling his eyes bugging out of his head, because Thor pulls on the gauntlet not even a second later, and he snaps.

It seems like they collectively take a half-relieved, half-worried breath, and there’s a blast coming out of the stones (and Thor?) that makes time slow and then suddenly…

Thanos bellows and Thor collapses and a figure dressed in dark and green and sporting a horn appears right next to Tony and… he starts shoving at Thor.

“You _stupid_ oaf! Of all the dumb and foolish ideas---”

“Hey-hey-hey,” Tony moves to his side to object, but Loki silences him with a glare and a few bitten out words:

“Get everyone with magic here _now_.”

As Tony hurries to comply, he sees Natasha putting a cuff on an unconscious Thanos’ wrist.

 

*

In the end, Thor is burnt badly, but he survives. Loki curses at him in what seems like under his every breath but doesn’t leave his bedside.

They have a burial for the Wakandan soldiers who gave their lives in the fight against Thanos, and Tony huddles Pepper and Rhodey close to him, not letting Peter out of his sight. (He’s with that bold Wilson bloke and Tony has to make sure he doesn’t get kidnapped.) A few steps away Steve is standing between Bucky and Sam, and they are not touching, but are so obviously together Tony’s teeth hurt just by looking at them.

After the speeches and the silence Pepper steers him towards the lake, squeezing his hand.

“You wanted to talk to me about Steve, I believe.” She murmurs in her kind, uncomplicated way. Tony reacts like a lightning bolt hit him between the ribs, stumbling and stuttering:

“Nothing happened! I didn’t, Pep, I haven’t-- Anything, I swear, I--”

She smiles at him and there is only warmth and love in her eyes. Tony doesn’t understand.

“I know. But there is more space in your heart unfilled, not just the one Morgan and I occupy, isn’t that right?”

Tony sputters. Has half a mind to argue that they are enough, they _have to be_ enough… but then he hears Steve’s voice in the distance, carrying loud and confident words of empathy, and he feels like he can’t breathe.

“If there’s anything these last years have thought us it’s that we have to take every chance we get at happiness. Don’t you think?”

Tony takes a step back to look at her and takes in her smile, the small crowfeet around her eyes, and her nose that’s so similar to their daughters.

“I love you so much,” he tells her, pulling her closer for a kiss.

“I love you too,” Pepper answers, and squeezes his waist. “And I won’t love you any less because you love someone else too.”

 

*

It happens two months later, in the compound. Steve knows he’s already talked to Bucky, because one night Bucky came to their bed with a fond and secretive smile on his face and a shinier (newer?) arm than before, and he knows he’s already talked to Sam too because one morning Sam kept making innuendos about scientifically designed Stark dildos and spent another looking at videos about how to braid children’s hair.

So he waits until Tony finally, finally comes to him too. He sits on the roof to draw the reviving city one night when Tony tells him from below:

“Jesus Christ, I’m so not gonna climb up there after you.”

Steve hops down and grins at him.

“Hi, Tony.”

Tony’s face is a bit red, his breathing a little shallow. He seems to be vibrating out of his skin from the nerves, and Steve loves him just a teensy bit more for it. He braves a soft smile and ignores how his own heart seems to want to jump out of his chest.

“I-- that is…” Tony stammers, reaching out a hand and putting it on Steve’s shoulder. They gravitate closer together as if they’re two planets finally moving into orbit. “Umm--”

“You can just kiss me if you want,” Steve whispers into the space between them, and Tony’s tension drops out of him so quickly and noticeably, it should be funny. It’s not funny, not yet. Maybe in a few years, when they will be sitting together in front of a fire with all their family and someone will bring up the insane way they danced around each other for _years_.

Tony reaches for his neck and smooths his other hand down his arm, folding his own body closer.

They kiss and kiss and kiss and kiss and everything is all right in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
